Hospital Flowers
by Verbal Tic
Summary: Emil's life is slowly coming to an end, wilting away in a almost forgotten hospital. Still, maybe the road won't be as lonely as he first thought. Hospital AU.
1. Mayflower

An AU story which is hopefully accurate and to be continued.

I do not own any characters featured in this story.

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His world is white. Not the white of the waves far away but that kind of white that stings your eyes, that's sterile and devoid of life as opposed to the sea's vivacity. The void of colour used to be scary but it has become a friend, something that doesn't leave his side no matter how bad it gets. A reminder of a battle he can only lose.

His name is Emil and he is a bedridden ghost that is slowly fading away in a British hospital, or a light blonde teenager who's life depends on a handful of doctors. He only has one visitor, a brother that has given far too much to someone who will die. Their parents are long gone, so are their once devoted friends who finally had enough.

He has his routine, breakfast at eight, tests, lunch at one, therapy and dinner at six. Every day is the same but it suits him, he has never been any good with the kind of change the real world is built upon. However, some days are different.

The air is as cold as the grey floor beneath his bare feet, toes barely touching the linoleum. Emil closes his eyes and counts to ten. The nurse appears at seven to get him into some warmer clothes as opposed to the flimsy gown they have given him to sleep in. Most nurses like to think that he is fragile and that they have to help him with everything, he lets them believe that to save himself from putting any effort into it. He has given up, why shouldn't they accompany him? It's certainly not because of the dull ache in joints or the loss of air he so often expects, at least.

The nurse walks him down to the dining area, through the just as white corridors that make up the adults ward; because he's an adult now, not a sick little kid. It's not something he likes to think about, all those days when he was locked inside coughing his throat out while the sun shone down on the kids playing outside. Because he's in a hospital now and he wont get better again.

He sits down at a table and someone puts down a tray in front of him, a breakfast consisting of the same porridge as it has for months now. It tastes just as beige as it looks.

A white room was to prefer over what Emil discovers upon his, and the nurse's, return to _his_ room. Chaos has suddenly coated the room in shades of red and brown, technical appliance and a large stuffed panda. And in the centre of it all, in the former empty bed, sits a boy glued to what looks like his phone. There is an older man, with as dark hair as the youngsters, sitting in a chair with the most worried look upon his face. The later is whispering something that Emil doesn't quite catch. Doesn't quite care about.

Apparently the nurse had the nerve to leave him alone with these strangers. Or she has gone invisible, it could be either. To avoid confrontation he curls up on his bed with one of his brother's books about some fairytale or other, though something about the stranger keeps him from actually concentrating on said book. Maybe it's those eyes he unfortunately met every time he_happens _to look up, they say that eyes can reveal the soul and a soul ought to be easier to concentrate on than some silly children's book. Not that he gives a damn.

"What do you want?" leaves Emil's lips before his manners get the chance to catch it.


	2. Pear Blossom

Gosh, I'm so sorry for being such a lazy ass. I hope to finish this story before summer, the next chapters should be easier to write than this one.

Thanks for all the reviews though, you are all very much appreciated. The characters shall be kept as close to their canon personalities as possible and yes, the story is named after the Owl City song.

**I do not own these characters.**

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Emil sat in his bed just a two or so nights later, annoyed by the now ever present noise that his room mate emitted. Not by voice, they hadn't actually spoken to each other yet, but by playing with his phone or blaring music through what must have been a pair of broken headphones. The sound was always there, even as the clock ticked towards 2 AM and any normal person should have been sleeping. Put the only way to stop it was to ask, to actually speak to a total stranger who probably wouldn't even listen if screamed at.

Maybe the late hour impaired his judgement because even with a heavy feeling in his chest Emil sat up to turn towards the nuisance.

"Hey, turn that thing of, will you?" he muttered, voice hoarser with sleepiness. Nervously he nibbled at his already tattered nails, wondering if the other had even heard him over the game he had been playing.

"Why should I?" the dark-haired boy replayed in a tone that sounded almost insulted, though upon a closer look the weak light from the game revealed that he wasn't even looking towards Emil.

"It's late." Of course he was insulted, they hadn't even introduced themselves yet and suddenly one of them was making demands. Sort of.

"Tsk, whatever." Emil let out a dejected sigh and fell back down onto the thin hospital mattress and wrapped the much thicker cover around himself, perhaps in an attempt to disappear from the face of reality. Or just to shut out the annoying sounds. Which continued for a while, though the room did reveal any passage of time, until the game was gaudily snapped shut.

"I was joking, no need to be such a downer about it." The boy let out a loud sigh. "Who are you anyway."

"None of your business." Emil answered, pulling the covers further above his head.

"You just made it my business. And we _are_ going to share a room for a while you know, maybe it would be nice to actually get to know each other? But if you want to be like that!"What was surely a very dramatic gesture could almost be seen in the street light light that made it's way in through into the room. This only prompted Emil to turn his back towards the other.

"For god's sake, quite down. It's Emil, OK?" he hissed. The damn moron had audacity to giggle.

"Now, isn't that a nice name? Mine's Li." The guy wasn't just noisy, apparently he was an arrogant ass too, not even close to the not-friend the Icelander certainly hadn't been hoping for. Not that he needed friends where he was going. Somehow, even though the annoyance of this Li made his chest hurt, he fell asleep.

Morning came and once again Li was being noisy, chatting with the nurse and probably the walls throughout the whole morning check-up and then all the way to the canteen. He complained about the porridge, calling it bland and sloppy. And it disturbed Emil's peace, his perfect routine did not include a whiny guy who wouldn't shut up or let him eat his food alone. It did not include having pillows throw at him because he was "too up-tight" or "totally acting like a grandpa". It did not include loud games in the middle of the night.

But somehow the time continued to turn, day after day after day. There always seemed to be people in the room now, Li's siblings or cousins or grandma's aunt's second cousin. Some were even louder than him, though a few of them were so respectful that they spoke Chinese, or whatever, _silently._

It was a night four week after the annoyance's arrival, Emil was as sleep deprived as usually. He was tired, so very tired, but even when the other had stopped with his noises sleep wouldn't come to the Icelander. It's wasn't even the pain that was the problem, just the general sick feeling in his body. His head spun, the room with it, and he could barely keep his eyes open.

"So, is your face stuck like that or something?" Li's voice cut through the silence and Emil's eyes came to rest at him as he sat there, typing away on his phone and not even looking up at Emil.

"It's not, stop it..." he mumbled through heavy lips.

"Why don't you smile then?"

"Because there is nothin-!" He broke into a heavy coughing fit, rocking back and forth with the force of each round and curling up against himself. The other might have said something but it went unnoticed under the harsh sound and forced breaths through a too tight throat, Emil could care less when the pain pulsed through him and even his toes curled inwards because of it. He should have been embarrassed when he appeared so fragile and broken but even the metaphorical air seemed to have left his chest, leaving behind an empty, exhausted shell.


End file.
